The invention relates to a pedal, in particular for a vehicle, having a pedal arm which is mounted in a retaining part such that it can be pivoted about a pivot axis and which can be deflected, by means of a pedal plate, by way of foot force and can be pivoted back into an initial position by at least one restoring-spring element, and having a friction damper which comprises a friction body and a friction surface and is intended for damping the movement of the pedal arm, the friction body being connected to the pedal arm and being prestressed against the friction surface by means of the restoring-spring element.
Such pedals are commonly used nowadays as gas pedals in motor vehicles and are thus known. Upon actuation of the pedal arm, the friction body slides over the friction surface and thus prevents slight changes in the foot force on the pedal arm, for example caused unintentionally by reactions of the vehicle movement, from resulting in a change in the pedal position. In this case, the friction produced in the friction damper is usually greater in the actuating direction of the pedal arm than in the opposite direction. As a result, the friction damper has a hysteresis which ensures that the pedal arm pivots reliably back into an initial position.
The pedal arm bears at least one friction body, which is in the form of a segment of a circle and rests against a friction surface arranged at one free end of a two-armed lever. At the same time, the pedal arm is connected to the other end of the lever by means of a compression spring. This means that the contact-pressure force between the friction body and friction surface increases as the deflection of the pedal arm increases, with the result that the damping is enhanced. As a result of the abovedescribed design, the pedal requires a larger number of components which, for production and fitting, involve high outlay, the amount of space required by the arrangement, at the same time, being relatively large.